It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it. That seems to be Sekhar Menon’s life mantra. Seems fitting considering how the actor/music producer—who is widely credited to be the one who introduced electronic music into the city’s clubbing circuit—has decided to put his 20 years of experience within the DJ booth to good use, by starting a brand new music hub called School Of Sound.
“I’m not a musician, so there’s no way I’m giving instructions on playing the guitar, violin etc. My primary focus is to shine more light on the art of playing records, showing people that you don’t need to be a musician to do this. How to sustain a rewarding career through DJing comes next. I also hope to eventually focus on contemporary street art forms like beatboxing, rapping, and the likes,” explains the actor, who will be seen onscreen next in the upcoming Tamil movie Kuppathu Raja.
Turntable teaser
The Da Thadiya star—who was the resident artiste at Kerala’s first-ever pub aka Formula 1—insists that the emphasis in this space is on sound, rather than music. Sekhar kicks things off with a two-month-long, beginner-level course where a small batch of enthusiasts can learn about the hardware, beatmatching, cueing, mixing techniques, and DJing etiquette. So what’s this 30-something-year-old planned for 2018?
“I’m still doing club gigs in Bengaluru, Chennai, etc, but truth be told, I’m slowly shifting lanes to music production nowadays. After 10 years of working on digital audio workstations like Ableton, I recently gained a unique opportunity to work alongside composer/guitarist Rex Vijayan on films like Parava and Mayaanadhi.”
anoop.p@newindianexpress.com
@godsonlymistake